


Perpendicular Hearts

by WanderingWanda



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-20 14:30:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6011254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WanderingWanda/pseuds/WanderingWanda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liking two opposite people at the same time is pretty tough. </p>
<p>"It took her almost two years to fall in love with Chat Noir, against an instant with Adrien, but the result is the same. Marinette is screwed."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Perpendicular Hearts

**Author's Note:**

> Because Valentine’s Day is totally an acceptable day to write about your OTP, right? Moreover, writing about Marinette liking “two people” at the same time is pretty funny (but this one is low in angst, I swear!)  
> French being my first language, there are probably some mistakes here and there, I apologize!  
> Bonne lecture !

When Marinette meets Adrien for the first time, she feels that something inside her is moving, shifting. Her body seems smaller, too tight to contain the emotions washing over her. She is drowning, she can't breathe. Her head is light—she knows that she was talking to Alya two seconds ago, but now she can't even remember what they were saying.

There is a crowd gathered around him, blocking her view, but she has seen enough. The dazzling smile (albeit a bit _shy_?) when he entered the building, his soft voice when he answered the people already harassing him... He looks like some kind of angel among mortals, all bright and graceful. There is nothing of the teenage awkwardness in Adrien Agreste.

"Wanna talk to him, Marinette?" Alya is raising an eyebrow, clearly amused. She has seen Marinette in every possible state of mind, but infatuated is a new one. Marinette's hand is suddenly clutching her arm.

"I can't talk to him like _that_!" She cries, her blue eyes wide on her friend who is trying very hard not to laugh.

"You're probably right. Don't want him to think you're a fangirl, uh?"

"I'm not!"

Like every teenager who is interested in the fashion industry, she has known Adrien Agreste for a while. He's a well-known model, son of a famous designer. Everybody wants him, everybody loves him. Of course she has noticed him before. Of course she has seen his dreamy face on magazines. But seeing him in the flesh, only a few meters separating them, is a whole new experience. When Chloé had informed them on their class group during the summer that Adrien Agreste would join them at the start of the school year, Marinette had thought about asking him questions about his father's work. But now, she's too upset to have a conversation with this boy.

The bell rings, filling Marinette with apprehension. She doesn't trust herself to sit still in the classroom without squeaking. She's being absolutely ridiculous.

Marinette doesn't talk to Adrien on his first day of school. Nor on his second one. Or third one. She tries, Alya encourages her, but the words don't leave her mouth, her feet refuse to move, and she's stuck watching him from afar, laughing with Nino, with whom he seems to get along, quite unexpectedly.

It's been two weeks, and Adrien probably doesn't know the name of the girl who is daydreaming about him. Their first official interaction is during Marinette's oral report on Olympe de Gouges. The teacher tells the students to ask her questions after she is done, but nobody raises their hand. Marinette feels awkward, everybody is looking either at her with glassy eyes or at their desk, bored. She has never been particularly shy, but knowing that she is standing in front of the boy she can hardly look at is a whole new experiment. Finally, before the teacher dismisses her, the person she wanted least to do so raises his hand.

"I'm sorry, but I didn't understand when you said her real name. Could you repeat, please?"

He's so polite! His sheepish smile! Her melting heart!

She has to repeat "Marie Gouze" three times, like some kind of summoning ceremony, because her tongue forgets how to function. The whole classroom is laughing at her high pitched answer and scarlet face and she almost runs to her chair. However, she is certain that she hears him thank her softly when she passes him.

 

When Ladybug meets Chat Noir for the first time, she does not know if she wants to laugh at him or tell him to get lost. She has been saving Paris for several months now, and one day this guy with cat ears and a dumb tail comes, and because of him, the villain she has been chasing for hours managed to escape. She understands that he was trying to help her, but she has no patience for someone who almost made her fall from a building because of his clumsiness.

"I'm sorry!" He keeps on repeating afterwards, a bashful expression on his masked face. "It's, uh, my first mission, y’know? As a superhero and all."

She doesn't accept the hand he's offering her and stands on her own. She wants to look impressive, but it's harder when you're scowling at someone taller than you.

"I don't need help," she informs him with her chin raised. "I was doing just fine."

For a second, she thinks he's going to argue with her, a strange sparkle in his eyes. But he merely ruffles his already ruffled hair and mutters: "I know that. You're Ladybug. I-I just wanted to help you, since I also have a Miraculous and you seem really busy..."

His eyes are looking at the ground, and she feels grateful for that. Is that because she is constantly tired, struggling with her dual identity, her duties at school and towards the city, or because he looks genuinely mad at himself for jeopardizing her and her mission? Either way, she turns her back to him and says with a neutral voice: "You can come if you want. Don't mess up this time, okay?"

Ten minutes later, he saves her life, and she understands that she won't be able to get rid of him now. Maybe she won't even want to, after a while.

 

Falling in love with Chat Noir is not like falling in love with Adrien Agreste. It's slower, like traveling with an old car. You wonder if you will get there, if it's even possible, if you should just abandon. But then you reach your destination nonetheless and the result is the same as if you had taken a brand new car. It took her almost two years to fall in love with Chat Noir, against an instant with Adrien, but the result is the same. Marinette is screwed.

Her relationship with Chat is built on a trust which roots are too deep to be cut. They care for each other in a way that can't be described by words, they will always have each other's back. They're a team. They're friends. They're something else.

Her relationship with Adrien has evolved a lot during the past few months. Marinette has pushed her shyness away, and now they can talk more freely. He's so different from the image she had of him at first. Far from being a cool and distant person, Adrien is a dork that likes being on friendly terms with anyone, although he is a bit reserved. She has yet to destroy his walls, but it's better than the "stuttering and awkwardly looking at each other" stage of their relationship. Nevertheless, she enjoys discovering all his facets. She doesn’t only fancy him for his looks; he is one of the nicest people she knows, and he is truly so _good_ and so smart that it makes her chest ache.

Does loving two people at the same time make her a bad person? Romantic love is supposed to be absolute, reserved to one special person. But how can this be wrong when it makes her feel so happy and peaceful? She doesn't angst about her relationships anymore. She decided to only focus on the warm feelings that make her stomach do strange things when she thinks about Adrien and Chat Noir. She won't make a move, though, still aware that it would be fair for them. She will wait for something, anything, to happen.

 

When she kisses Adrien for the first time, it's hesitant and sweet and innocent. They went to see a movie together (Alya and Nino were supposed to be there, but they both cancelled at the last moment, would you believe!) and ended up sitting on a bench under the moonlight. Marinette is cold but she's too happy to complain. She doesn't know who leans on first, but one minute she's loosing herself in his warm gaze and the other she has her lips on his. His hands find the way to her checks and hers to his neck.

Suddenly, the night is warmer.

 

When she kisses Chat Noir for the first time, it's desperate and passionate and scorching. They are both bleeding— Marinette can feel his blood on her tongue—and the ground seems to shatter under their feet. She's shaking, but no one knows if it's because of her overwhelming emotions or the realization that they almost died, that their duty almost destroyed them, that nothing will ever be the same.

So they kiss, as if it were the last time. Perhaps it is, as they feel more vulnerable than ever, aware of their weaknesses and their mortality. Ladybug and Chat Noir are no longer mighty superheroes, but two teenagers who carry the weight of a city on their small shoulders. No one will ever understand that better than them, they are apart from everyone else. However, their souls are connected, crushing the loneliness which has been taunting them since they first put on their masks.

The persistent beep of their Miraculous breaks the spell. They have to separate before it’s too late. Learning the truth about their partner in these circumstances would break them, Marinette is sure of that. The big reveal will come one day, it is now inevitable, whether Marinette likes it or not. Without a word—looks are enough, they have always been for them—they part ways, their hearts screaming in perfect unison.

 

It’s their third kiss now, but it feels like a new beginning. This time, the secret is out. They are both aware of who they are truly kissing. It’s slow and hopeful and electrifying. Everything falls into place. There is no heartbreak, no pain. Easier than she might have thought. In this very moment, it’s just Marinette, who happens to be a superhero, with her boyfriend Adrien, who happens to be a superhero.

 

The first time Marinette decides to tie her life to someone else cannot be connected to a particular day or moment of her life. It comes from a realization born in her heart years ago, when she was still a teenager with dreams bigger than her head. It feels like it has always been within her. Perhaps it has. In the very fabric of her soul, a sentiment woven centuries ago by Fate, and which has survived all her previous lives. It would be a beautiful story.

When she says “I do”, for the first and last time of her life, she knows that it’s a sentence only reserved for the blond man with a dazzling smile who looks at her as if she were the most precious thing in his life. It is, after all, the only path their hearts know.


End file.
